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Tag Archives: Twitter

Ahh, it’s campaign season. And, the Obama for America re-election campaign is once again using social media to rally the masses, however this time it’s taken a much different tone.

Obama for America has launched a new campaign, called Attack Watch (Attackwatch.com and @Attackwatch). This website and Twitter feed, sponsored by the re-election campaign, is dedicated to dispelling campaign “lies” touted by Obama’s opposition.

“Obama for America national field director Jeremy Bird said the site offers “new resources to fight back,” including policy issue pages that fact check statements by Obama’s Republican opponents with links to “evidence” to back them up.” – ABC News

The Attack Watch campaign’s slogan “Get the facts. Fight the smears.” is shown at the top of the website where users can “report an attack” on the President, the administration or its policy. The campaign is also encouraging followers to do the same via hashtag #attackwatch on Twitter.

While I have no problem with Obama rallying supporters for his re-election efforts, Attack Watch reeks of 1984’s “Big Brother.” And, dare I say, when the administration launches a website called “Attack Watch” mere days after the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it may be misconstrued by many and strike fear in some. This does not seem to be the type of dialogue that makes social media successful.

“This is a public relations disaster of the highest order. The acumen with which Obama’s team used the Internet in 2008 has become a joke today; someone should have known that an invitation to report dissent online would become an invitation to increase that dissent.” – Ology website

#AttackWatch is trending on Twitter with over 100 tweets a second, however response is not what the Obama campaign expected:

@meredithdake: “By going on offense w/ #AttackWatch Obama inadvertently gave the public a campaign-approved outlet 2 mock him in 140 characters or less.”

@JasonMKates: @AttackWatch #attackwatch is one of the funniest PR disasters in recent politics. Like telling on my brother and then getting beat for it.

There are a dozen fires burning across Texas today, with the fire in Bastrop being one of the largest and least contained. So far, the fire has consumed 30,000 acres and approximately 600 homes. Smoke can be seen and smelled from Corsicana to Corpus Christi. Dozens of fire stations across the state have dispatched fire fighters to Bastrop and other counties in trouble.

More information on shelters and available assistance can be found here. Evacuees are being asked to register on the Red Cross Safe and Well site so a count can be taken and family members can search.

UPDATE: According to @keyetv (KEYE TV Austin): Bastrop ISD is closed today and tomorrow. This includes extracurricular activities.

UPDATE: Texas Fire Support on Facebook if you want to help fire victims. We Are OK in Bastrop for people to post that they are safe – however, I recommend you please use the Red Cross Safe and Well site listed above.

UPDATE: Steiner Ranch is now being reopened to residents ONLY. Must show ID at checkpoint.

UPDATE: @firetxnews is following fire incidents for Houston and surrounding areas.

UPDATE: KXAN News – Austin is asking anyone in need of volunteers to post to their FB page. People are also posting there if they see any other fire threats.

UPDATE: Magnolia TX Fire and Evacuation on Facebook for those closer to the Houston area. Austin American Statesman has a great page on area fire updates, school closures, volunteer information and evacuation/shelter information.

Central Texas Fires on Facebook, although I would urge you to use one of the pages already established. This one seems to be too general.

Texas Forest Service website reporting Texas Forest Service responded to 22 new fires for 7,544 acres, including 10 new large fires. In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 181 fires for 118,413 acres. It appears that in the past 48 hours, more than 700 homes have been destroyed.

Skittles – yes, the candy – has launched a new campaign called “Interweb the Rainbow.” They have redirected their website, skittles.com, to the Twitter search site for the word “skittles.” Currently #skittles is trending at the top of Twitter conversations.

Clicking the “Friends” link on the floating menu takes you to the Skittles Facebook page; clicking “Media” takes you to the Skittles channel on YouTube.

Other firms have taken this approach before, but no one I think as large as Mars candy or Skittles brand. What do you think? Innovative or lazy?

What an amazing event we experienced this afternoon. According to the Associated Press, more than 1 million people attended the inauguration in the National Mall – one of the largest-ever gatherings in the nation’s capital (there’s satellite images to prove it). Once again, we have accomplished a peaceful transfer of power.

More than ever, we had access to an abundant amount of information. For instance, Michelle Obama looked stunning in an Isabel Toledo dress and coat, in “lemongrass”. The dress alone sparked enough twitters, blog postings and even a Wall Street Journal article. But, the information frenzy didn’t end there – Kodak was quick to mention that Malia Obama used a Kodak Easy Share M893 to click the pics of her dad during his inaugural address. The twitterverse was also the first to point out that the fumble in the presidential oath was actually because Chief Justice Roberts, who was reciting from memory, cited the oath incorrectly.

We also found out in real-time that Senators Kennedy and Byrd were both removed from the first lunch with the new President. Senator Byrd was taken from the room because he was visibly upset after witnessing Kennedy, who was sitting next to him, have a seizure. Senator Kennedy, who left on a stretcher, is reportedly doing well in the hospital. The embarrassing part is that someone actually updated both Senators’ Wikipedia pages saying they had passed – it was quickly corrected.

We were given a blow-by-blow of the presidential parade, including when the Obamas decided to get out of the “Beast” and walk. We quickly spread the word that – although the Secret Service reported no arrests from the crowd at the Mall – approximately 30 kids were waiting at D.C. police stations because they were separated from their parents in the mayhem. We also watched as the Dow sunk below 8,000 on Obama’s first official day in office.

There were 600,000 status updates posted through the CNN.com Live Facebook feed

Facebook averaged 4,000 status updates per minute during the broadcast

8,500 status updates were posted during the first minute of Obama’s speech

“Millions” of people logged into Facebook during the broadcast

And, Twitter saw 5x normal tweets-per-second and about 4x tweets-per minute, per the Twitter blog. Overall, I must admit that Twitter did extremely well given this surge of traffic – they are definitely learning and improving with each major event. CNN, which linked up with Facebook, set Web traffic records this morning with 18.8 million total online viewers. They also served more than 1.3 million concurrent live streams before Obama began his address. Overall, CNN broke its all-time total daily streaming record of 5.3 million live streams.

CNN also posted its full view of the inauguration using Microsoft Photosynth. From here, you can view “the moment” from every angle, as if you were there live (actually, better…).